Happy Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody!!! Hope it is/was a good one!! It was good to hear from a lot of you. Makes me miss all of you and Popo's house on Christmas night. However, Japan has helped me out a bit by not really celebrating Christmas. Today didn't even really feel like Christmas. Everybody goes to work and everything is open just like a normal day. I think they only adopted the holiday for the Christmas music because I'll be damned if I've gone into a grocery store in December and haven't heard Christmas music. They all love it here. The only time you don't hear xmas music in the store is 10 minutes before a store is closing. Then they play Auld Lang Syne (every store all year round). When you hear that song it means get the hell out. In fact, that is the only time you will hear English over the intercom. "The store is closing soon." And it's not only in English, but Chinese, and I think 25 different languages (Just to let that foreigner looking for salad dressing in the soy sauce aisle know to hurry it up).

Anyway, back to Christmas. So we all know Santa is a generous man and gives a lot during Christmas. But have you ever wondered how he makes a living to afford all those toys? Well, in October we took a day bus trip to Okaiyama. We stopped by for a bathroom break and snacks. I went inside the snack shop to see what was there. Being from America, I instantly noticed that wasn't any old store clerk selling Japanese cookies.

So everybody, I hope you have a Happy Merry Christmas! (As it's often written in Japan)